Budget cuts to California's higher education system have now made animals the victims of its funding restrictions. Pierce College's historic animal farm could soon close its gates if next month's fundraiser fails to rake in the needed dough. more ›

Occupy haters may have another reason to oppose the global movement following the news that costs surrounding the local occupation will spur more budget cuts. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says budget cuts will be necessary to offset the costs of Occupy L.A. more ›

UCLA students and supporters took to the streets today to protest cuts to the budget that have led to an increase in fees, reports the AP. About 200 people participated, closing down parts of Wilshire and Westwood boulevards. more ›

Costa Mesa City Council approved layoffs for 200 city workers, eight police officers and one animal control officer despite an independent audit that found approximately $23 million in the city's general fund for the upcoming year, according to CBS Local. more ›

Several dozen protests are being held statewide today to spotlight the perils of cuts made to funding for public education. Locally, such protests are taking place in Long Beach, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Valley Village, Van Nuys and elsewhere in Los Angeles, according to ABC7. more ›

After the president of their university refused to sign a petition stating that he stands by students who want tuition hikes and budget cuts to stop, Cal State Fullerton students staged a sit-in, reports KABC. Beginning at 9 p.m. last night, up to 50 students filled the administration building to make their point to President Milton Gordon. more ›

Los Angeles' Department of Water and Power announced today plans to gut its budget by about $440 million in part by implementing a three-year hiring freeze, effective immediately, in the face of a huge deficit, reports ABC Local. more ›

Faced with the possibility of a $500 million cut in state funding, California State University is planning to enroll 10,000 less students next year, and campuses will be asked to cut their budgets by a total of $281 million, reports the LA Times. The cuts will also mean fewer faculty and staff, as well as reduced spending by the chancellor's office, which itself faces a funding cut of $11 million, Chancellor Charles B. Reed told the Times. more ›

California's budget crisis is no day in the park. Literally. State parks are bracing for the bad news as the parks department may release list of properties to close as early as this week, reports ABC Local. Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered $22 million cut from the state's operating budget and that means parks and beaches are in danger of shutting down. more ›

Question: If the street sweepers stop sweeping is it appropriate to continue to ticketing cars on street sweeping day? According to The Eastsider, the noisy street sweeper that typically gobbles up litter and debris on the 2600 block of Riverside Terrace near Allesandro Elementary School hasn't been seen or heard from in last six weeks. more ›

Flavorpill recently created this really cool list of 10 books for America's 10 most literary cities. The annual results are in on Central Connecticut State University's ranking of the 75 most literary cities in the country and Flavorpill wanted to do each city proud. Cool, right? So what book did they ascribe to L.A.? They didn't. Out of seventy five cities, Los Angeles ranked 61st. more ›

Miguel Santana, Administrative Officer for the City of Los Angeles, wants to cut the graffiti removal program in half to save city budget dollars and residents in graffiti-heavy neighborhoods are none too pleased, according to the Venice Patch. Slashing the graffiti program down to the bare essentials will save the city $1.5 million - a figure that many supporters of the program believe is paltry compared with other programs that could be cut and would save the city far more dollars with less negative impact. more ›

On Monday Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa threatened to implement a new round of employee furloughs and layoffs if Los Angeles City Council members were unable to reach an agreement on budget cuts. more ›

Photojournalist Robert Nickelsberg uses 36 images, narration, and audio recorded on-scene to capture what it's like for LAPD officers working in the South Bureau’s Southeast and 77th Divisions and gang and K-9 units during a time when budget cuts are affecting how the work is done. The images are assembled into a multimedia presentation on Time.com. more ›

It's not just the Los Angeles Public LIbraries that are facing budget cuts, forcing reduced hours, but libraries across the region. At California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), students were put into a bind when officials shortened hours from midnight to 8 p.m. That's bad news, but what makes it worse is that it was finals week. more ›

A proposal to shut Los Angeles libraries down another day of the week was reluctantly approved yesterday by the board that oversees them. Starting July 6th, libraries will be open five days a week, a move to keep the system of 83 libraries solvent during budget cuts and workforce reductions. This comes after the Board of Library Commissioners voted to shorten hours earlier this year from seven days a week to six due to budget cuts. More details of the proposal can be found on LAist's post from before the meeting. more ›

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger presented his new state budget, called the "May Revise," yesterday, which includes several "severe cuts" to programs and funding he believes will help solve the budget crisis. more ›

About 50 librarians and book supporters gathered on all four corners of a busy Hollywood intersection last Friday evening during rush hour, earning honks in support of saving L.A.'s dwindling library system. This year, it has already faced major cuts--for one, libraries are no longer open seven days a week--and now faces even heavier ones in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed budget, which will take affect July 1st when libraries could go from six to five days of open doors. more ›

The plan to freeze police hiring, which would deplete the force as officers retired, was rejected by the L.A. City Council yesterday and sent to committee for further study, according to the LA Times. That move, however, comes as job cuts continu across the city, including civilian positions within the police department. "The impacts are very real, as officers are forced to stay at home because of overtime concerns and fill in for furloughed civilians or vacant civilian jobs," said Paul Weber of the L.A. Police Protective League, the union that represents more officers. “I never thought I would be in a position where we’re choosing between libraries and parks staying open, and a well-staffed Police Department. I don’t really like making those choices.” said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who voted to reject the freeze. more ›

Proposed cuts to services and other departments in the City in the face of a serious budget crunch means that many of our cherished, under-appreciated, and already under-served resources stand to lose a great deal. The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) is no exception, and in order to gather public support they have launched a "Save the Library" campaign. more ›

Close to ten hours into a Los Angeles City Council budget committee meeting late Monday night, the money-saving move to layoff 1,000 employees was not approved, despite a $208 million budget deficit. At first, the layoffs were approved by Councilmembers Bernard Parks, Greig Smith and Bill Rosendahl with Paul Koretz and Jose Huizar against it, but Rosendahl quickly balked, siding against the layoffs. more ›

With a projected budget deficit of $350 million over next ten years and a $23 Million projected deficit in the next fiscal year, the city's Department of Transportation is being forced to seriously look at their operations. Part of that includes the management of their transit services like DASH and Commuter Express where massive cuts are being proposed. more ›

More examples of delayed fire department responses linked to budget cuts are coming to light. One of the most recent incidents involved a 22-year-old South L.A. woman suffering from a cardiac arrest. "Normally, the closest paramedic-staffed engine would have been a half-mile away," explained the LA Times. "However, that engine had been shut down and a unit 1.7 miles away responded instead, arriving four minutes after the alarm was sounded, according to fire officials. An ambulance with two paramedics took eight minutes to get to the scene." She later died at the hospital. more ›

Billions taken healthcare and education, a 32 percent hike under consideration in the University system, the list could go on. The big question is, after this year, what more is there to cut? more ›

The school year is well underway now, and campuses in the vast LAUSD system are coping with the consequences of this year's massive budget cuts. But in the state as a whole, "the impact of California's budget cuts has varied from school to school. Because of the patchwork of federal and state funding for education, some campuses have felt the pinch far less than others," explains Mitchell Landsberg in yesterday's LA Times. more ›

Although officials don't know for sure, the drowning of a 3-year-old boy last week might have been prevented if rolling cuts were not in effect. To close a $54 million gap in the department's budget, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa cut non-emergency overtime in lieu of furloughs or layoffs. The cut meant shutting down 15 engines and 9 ambulances at rotating locations around the city daily. more ›

We all know that Schwarzenegger loves Twittering and yesterday he uploaded a short TwitVid that began with him holding a very large knife, apparently a metaphor for his budget cuts. Har, har! As of 11 a.m., it's received over 100,000 views. more ›

An e-mail, probably from an anonymous staffer within the city's Information Technology Agency, says the city's most successful outreach tool to the public is set to be cut from the budget outright. If you don't use it, 3-1-1 is available 24 hours a day with live city operators ready to take various requests like graffiti and bulky item pickups and help you access any person within the city. It's goal is to centralize access to the city and could in fact save the city money when the three phased project is finished, if ever. more ›

ALOUD at Central Library hosts a conversation with Reza Aslan, cofounder and creative director of BoomGen Studios as well as the Editorial Executive of Mecca.com and journalist Amy Wilentz for Young Literati Members tonight at 7 pm. They’ll talk about “launching a revolution in the way we understand - and confront - radical Islam.” After the program, join both authors and Young Literati members for an intimate gathering, including cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at Café Pinot. (ALOUD Program is open to the public, the post-program cocktails are limited to current Young Literati members.) more ›

Members of the United Teachers Los Angeles are gathered right now outside the LAUSD's Local District 5's offices to protest the board's plan to terminate thousands of teachers, many of them the district's youngest and most energetic. The crowd, dressed in either their UTLA red shirts or pink (symbolic of the pink slips) prompted District 5 Superintendent Carmen Schroeder to come down to address the crowd. Using a microphone, several of the area's... more ›